Mark Lanegan Live Appearances, 2011
Please scroll down for fan reviews

Winter 2011 Dates with Isobel Campbell
5 February, 2011	Istanbul, Turkey	Salon
6 February, 2011	Vienna, Austria	WUK	photos
8 February, 2011	Helsinki, Finland	Tavastia	photos
9 February, 2011	Copenhagen, Denmark	Vega (seated)
11 February, 2011	Malmo, Sweden	KB
12 February, 2011	Stockholm, Sweden	Strand
13 February, 2011	Oslo, Norway	Rockefeller
15 February, 2011	London, UK	Empire	review at 6dft.net
16 February, 2011	Utrecht, Holland	TBC
17 February, 2011	Luxembourg	Rockhal
18 February, 2011	Charleroi, Belgium	Eden

US West Coast Dates opened by Sean Wheeler and Zander Schloss
date	city	venue	info
Sun, 12 June 2011	Hollywood, CA	Hollywood Forever Cemetary	review
Tues, 14 June 2011	San Franciso, CA	Great American Music Hall
Thurs, 16 June 2011	Portland, OR	Doug Fir
Fri, 17 June 2011	Seattle, WA	Neptune	photos

European Summer Dates with Isobel Campbell
date	city	venue	info
8 July, 2011	Antwerp, Belgium	Cactus Festival
10 July, 2011	Turku, Finland	Ruisrock Festival
12 July, 2011	Glasgow, UK	Grand Ole Opry
13 July, 2011	Lancaster, UK	Library
14 July, 2011	Manchester, UK	Cathedral	review
16 July, 2011	Suffolk, UK	Latitude Festival
Australian Dates with Isobell Campbell
29 July, 2011	Sydney	Factory/Metro
30 July, 2011	Woodford, Queensland	Splendour
1 August, 2011	Melbourne	National Theatre
2 August, 2011	Melbourne	Thornbury Theatre
3 August, 2011	Freemantle	Fly By Night

Solo Dates
date	city	venue	info
Sun, 31 July 2011	Melbourne	Cherry Bar
Sun, 28 August, 2011	Aarhus, Denmark	Aarhus Theater
Mon, 29 August, 2011	Aarhus, Denmark	Paradis

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US Summer Solo Shows
featuring Jeff Fielder on Guitar and Sean Wheeler & Zander Schloss opening

review by Lee Sherman, Leisureman 
Mark Lanegan at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, June 12, 2011

The Night Porter. The Beast in Me. Oh, how long I’ve waited to see Mark Lanegan solo and acoustic. Here comes that Weird Chill. Twenty years after my first Screaming Trees show. In a cemetery, no less. What a night!
It was dusk when I arrived, but the moon was up and full already, shining down between the palm trees and headstones. The famous Hollywood sign greeted me as I turned the corner and traced the path from the parking lot back to the main gate. This was truly an inspired choice of venue and it set the tone for a rare performance from one of the most haunting voices in music. It’s been six or seven years since Lanegan has played solo in the states, though he toured Europe with guitarist Dave Rosser last year, and played the El Rey with Isobel Campbell as recently as last October. As great as that was, he was in a support role. These solo shows are a much more low-key affair and they are all about Lanegan. No time for solos or guitar noodling. This is the man: stark, raw and naked. I have nearly worn out the bytes on my bootleg copy of the Glasgow show, so it was a great relief to have scored tickets for this before it sold out.

The venue was located upstairs in the Masonic Lodge. A line some 200 people deep curved around the interior of a large anteroom near the merch table and a makeshift bar selling beer and wine. Openers Sean Wheeler and Zander Schloss were on hand to greet some friends and when the opened the doors to the hall I spotted Eric Erlandson (guitar, Hole) posing with a fan for a pic. The other Gutter Twin was also spotted; on my way out I bumped into Greg Dulli.

The hall was narrow and long, and well suited for film screenings as the vintage posters from Chinatown, Easy Rider and Star Wars indicated. Two mikes on stands fronted the shallow, low rising stage and along the back wall where five what I would have to call ‘thrones’ of various height and ornamentation. A five tiered candelabra stood stage left. One could easily picture the Knights Templar (or the Stone-cutters) conducting their rituals and ceremonies in this somber chamber. I doubt they could have pictured Sean Wheeler and Zander Schloss.

They were an unlikely seeming duo, coming from disparate backgrounds but with deep punk roots, the self-effacing Wheeler was intimidated by the crowd’s rapt silence and mentioned as much to the amusement of the audience. This weren’t no punk rock dive bar. His raspy demeanor and playful stage banter reminded me of a cross between Chris Isaak and Iggy Pop. Schloss looked like a punk-rock David Lindley, in his polyester suit and fat tie. They had some great tunes with a Palm Desert / Meat Puppets vibe going and killer harmonies. During Schloss’s bouzouki (which he later informed me was the Greek and not the Irish version) driven “Song about Songs” Wheeler draped himself across one of the thrones before rejoining on harmonies for the last chorus. Their road-, world-, love-, life-weary lyrics were heartfelt and humorous and their CD kept me awake throughout the 90 minute ride home.

Then it was time for Mark. Guitarist Jeff Fielder, whom I recognized from Isobel Campbell’s band, took the stage first to tune up. Then the lights dimmed and up the right side aisle came Mr. Lanegan, slouching, sullen and with his hands deep in his pockets. After the perfunctory greeting to end the applause Fielder began the measured arpeggio of “When Your Number Isn’t Up” and Lanegan took the mike with one hand and with the other grabbed the stand in the middle like it was the only thing holding him down to earth. Eyes closed, scowling for the night porter. Then one after the other they poured out, “No Easy Action”, “One Way Street”, “Don’t Forget Me”. Similar set-list to the European shows from the beginning, and if you don’t have those releases get them. Fielder definitely studied Rosser’s work in arranging his sparse accompaniment to fully compliment and bring The Voice to the fore. His handling of the Screaming Trees chestnut “Where the Twain Shall Meet” from 1989’s Buzz Factory stripped back the psychedelic veneer of the Conner brothers squalling guitars and laid the song bare, receding to almost to nothing under the whispered recitation of the verses and then swelling up again to crash upon the chorus.

Then came a real treat; new material. While it was a bit more rickety and less rehearsed and polished than the other numbers Lanegan offered up a solo arrangement of “Burning Jacob’s Ladder” recently released as a download with the video game “Rage”. It seemed like the bridge went a little long as Lanegan missed his cue to come in a with the final verse, but it made witnessing their interaction all the more exciting as he tried to recover. While it seems like a smile would crack his face, his sheepish shrug was an endearing moment of levity. Before ending the set he also included the Johnny Cash sung / Nick Lowe penned “Beast in Me” from the Hangover 2 soundtrack. While it was great to hear him step into the Man in Black’s shoes for a moment, I don’t feel he added as much of his own stamp to it, as he has with other covers (Dylan’s “Man in the Long Black Coat” for example). Still great that he is getting major soundtrack work. That should pay the rent between shows for awhile.

The show ended and there was no where to hide onstage, so after a brief pause behind the stage right curtain, Lanegan and Fielder stepped up for a five song encore, beginning with the early Pink Floyd cover “Julia Dream”. Then the haunting lament of “Bombed” stretched like Bubblegum across the room, 90 seconds of confession that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. He closed with a long, raga-esque “Halo of Ashes” another Trees’ tune from 1996’s Dust. Once again, during the bridge he went off into outer (or inner?) space and at times it seemed like Fielder was trying to coax him into returning, accenting his notes at the top of each four bar turn-around to compel him back into the song, but Lanegan would just close his eyes and sway, and let him take another lap. Finally he came to and both belted out a final chorus, harmonizing the last note and letting it float over the crowd. As he exited I swear that note was still there somewhere high above us while we rose to our feet and applauded. And in typical Lanegan fashion, he was offstage and gone before it was finished.

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2011 Shows with Isobel Campbell
review by Si
6 Days From Tomorrow 
Mark Lanegan and Isobel Cammpbell @ Manchester Cathedral, Manchester, UK, July 17, 2011

I’ve been to some odd locations for gigs lately. A field with a massive radio-telescope in it, a patio-ed room with a metal staircase in the middle of the dance floor, an art gallery beside the sea and a chapel.

And now, a full-on Cathedral. In as much as Cathedrals can be full-on. I’m not very religious, I have no idea how the terminology is supposed to work.

It’s not been that long (February, in fact) since I last saw Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan take the stage for a show that was enjoyable but somewhat perfunctory in nature, with neither the audience nor the artists really getting into the swing of things in the way that a live show probably should, certainly in comparison to previous shows that I had seen them perform (seeing Mark dab his eyes due to laughing so hard at a Christmas show in Bexhill-on-Sea is an odd image, but definitely a memorable one). This one was somewhat more upbeat, if somewhat curtailed by an errant toaster.

First of all, the Cathedral is beautiful. It doesn’t lend itself to mega-perfect sound, but that’s because it’s a Cathedral and built more for exultant lung-busting choral shenanigans rather than la Belle et le Bete that we were treated to tonight. This is a small matter though, as the charm of Isobel and Mark’s performance lies not in spot-on acoustic perfection, but in the strange chemistry they carry on stage with them.

Opening with We Die And See Beauty Reign, the setlist was more upbeat and poppy than I remember previous shows, with Honey Child What Can I Do? and Time of the Season being particular highlights. Old faves were still there as well, with Mark and Isobel taking centre stage for their respective solo songs The Circus Is Leaving Town and Saturday’s Gone. They are at their best when they’re together though (thankfully the small stage meant that they were a lot closer together than the apparent chasm of the Shepherd’s Bush stage), and the old idiosyncrasies were out in force – Mark tapping away on his mic stand when he wasn’t singing, Isobel fiddling about with an array of percussion when she wasn’t.

The main (well, non-literal) show-stopper came with the sultry Backburner, drawn out to create layer upon layer of tension before fading out, a rare accomplishment for a live song. Sadly, the evening came to a bit of an abrupt halt – during Something to Believe, an incessant peeping noise could be heard. Following directly from this, the house lights went up during Salvation and we were all told to bugger off outside as the peeping was a fire alarm. Not sure if anyone was let in after that, as after much standing about in the pleasant Manchester evening, we were informed that there was indeed a fire in part of the building, set off by a toaster – although the following statement of “the Fire Service are still trying to locate it” was a bit odd. I’m no expert, but toasters don’t tend to move about that much, and even the most stealthy breadwarmer would surely find it difficult to stay hidden for too long whilst being on fire….

So, not sure if anyone was let in as I got bored after a bit and sodded off into the night. Also, all my pictures came out rubbish as I was stood in front of the Big Red Light that was illuminating most of the band (Mark once more choosing the shadows for his vantage point), although in fairness a green one fired up every now and then – sadly, no “Put your 3D glasses on Now!!” accompanied this bonus illumination. Shame.

But what we had by way of pre-infernal-Breville entertainment was really well-received by the Manchester crowd (despite several radio-based session visits, these two had only popped into town for the benefit of a viewing public once before, so the songs were listened to intently, and the pauses were punctuated loudly. A strange night out, but a good one.